OREANDA-NEWS. Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust today introduces Target My Retirement SM, a more personalized investment product for its 401(k) plan sponsors and participants. Target My Retirement takes its cue from the well-accepted target date approach to investment allocation, but the product’s innovation comes through the addition of more personal information about the investor, including an individual’s current financial and demographic information.  Like a target date fund, Target My Retirement is cost-effective and can be used as a plan’s qualified default investment alternative (QDIA). Wells Fargo chose Morningstar Associates, a registered investment advisor and part of Morningstar’s Investment Management group, as the independent financial firm that will advise and construct the portfolios for those participants who choose or are defaulted into Target My Retirement in their 401(k) plan. 

“Target My Retirement represents a positive evolution of a target-date investment in that it is more tailored to the individual,” said Joe Ready, head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. “Not everybody in an age band is the same, and Target My Retirement allows participants to craft a more personalized approach within their 401(k) plan. Creating a plan for retirement is a journey over many years and with technology, we are at a place where we can do better than offer a one-size-fits-all approach to planning.” 

Target My Retirement features include:

  • Personalized Portfolio – Target My Retirement allocates contributions and existing account balance to create a customized investment portfolio that targets a participant’s 80% retirement income replacement goal. While the allocation starts with the participant’s age and expected retirement date, it is further customized using the individual’s gender, account balance, salary level and contribution rate. These participant attributes are all automatically applied using 401(k) plan data without the participant having to provide any additional data or do any extra work. In addition, Target My Retirement integrates expected Social Security benefits into the portfolio analysis and offers participants the ability to add outside asset information to create a more holistic view.
  • Greater Flexibility – Participants can select any target retirement date, as opposed to having to select a standard, five-year target-date increment, and can change their target retirement year at any time. Based on the year selected, Target My Retirement will rebalance the participant’s portfolio to a revised allocation.
  • More Investment Options – Target My Retirement offers investment choices that include a mix of well-diversified asset managers using mutual funds and collective funds. A plan sponsor can also opt to use the investment lineup already selected for the 401(k) plan.  
  • Independent Glidepath Construction – Where traditional target date funds typically support a limited number of age-based portfolios (e.g., 10) along a proprietary glidepath, Target My Retirement currently supports significantly more glidepath scenarios. Each scenario provides a more personalized glidepath for the participant to better reflect the participant’s goals and situation.
  • Available QDIA Option – Target My Retirement is an excellent QDIA option for a retirement plan. Unlike other QDIA options that are “one size fits all,” Target My Retirement seeks to provide a personalized long-term retirement strategy, where participants’ retirement dollars are invested according to their individual needs.

“We anticipate this will be a differentiator for participants who are looking to create their unique path for retirement savings,” Ready said. “Target My Retirement creates a customized portfolio that considers savings and risk attributes beyond the traditional retirement age approach. These additional attributes, combined with multi-manager portfolio construction, independent asset allocation expertise and the ability to customize your retirement year further personalizes the participant experience. We’re pleased to be able to offer more options to strengthen and support investing for retirement.”